(Warning: This story contains graphic violence and may also include sexual encounters. Viewer discretion is advised. Rating: MA only)
(Author's Note: I know this is the intro to the game, I just wanted to see if you enjoyed how I write my stories. Hail Sithis!)
Chapter One: Beginnings
Back and forth. Back and forth. As I slowly opened my eyes, I took notice of two things. What I first noticed was that I no longer wore my own clothes, but rough clothes that were made from burlap. Then I noticed another thing. I was in a horse-drawn cart and my hands were bound with thick rope that chafed my wrists. As I slowly lifted my head, I found my eyes looking directly at a Nord. As he took notice of me and stated, "Good, you're awake," I examined him. He wore a blue and brown hauberk, obviously of military origin. He had long blonde hair and a beard that looked more like stubble than an actual beard. His hands were bound and I noticed that he wore fur boots and gloves that were worn from use.
As I listened to him explain that we were currently prisoners, (which I had figured out from the ropes) I examined the other two men in the cart. One was a Breton who wore the same clothes as I but had long brown hair and drawn eyes. The other man looked a lot like the Nord in front of me, except for two things. First, he wore a bearskin cloak and was dressed like a noble. Secondly, his mouth was gagged, which I found odd.
My companions and I were being driven to what appeared to be a small town. The only thing strange about it was that it looked more like a military outpost then a real town. As we drove through the gates, I looked around, drinking in my surroundings. I noticed there was another cart and we were flanked by at least two horsemen. The town's gate was being patrolled by archers, which from the uniforms they wore, I was able to determine that they were soldiers of the Imperial Army. This only made my fears worsen as I had heard of their reputation and was not comforted by it.
"Look at him, General Tulius, the military governor. And it looks like the Thalmor are with him. Damn elves, I bet they had something to do with this." I could tell by the way he said this, that the Nord all but hated the Empire. Now while I will admit, I had little love for them either, I wasn't so vocal about it. As we trundled past some buildings, the townspeople pointed and whispered. One man told his son to go inside the house and not leave. I watched as the boy reluctantly agreed, and then became wide eyed as he saw me.
I will admit, half of the whisperings were directed at the other prisoners, and the other half was most likely directed at me. It's not everyday that a Khajit like me leaves the sands of his homeland and journeys into the cold northern waste known as Skyrim. As the reader most likely knows, you cannot imagine a person without a description, so I will tell you my appearance. I stand at 6' and am covered in coarse grey fur, with two lines of black streaking down the top of my head, all the way down to my feet. A long tail protruded from my backside and was currently wrapped around my hip and down my leg. I have long, catlike ears, with tufts of fur that protrude from the inside, as well as several rings that are pierced through my ears. My face was speckled with white and black dots around my nose and a long mustache protruded from my upper lip, with two gold rings at the end of each tip. I also am rather muscular and have three claw marks that stretch from the top of my left eye and down across the bridge of my nose.
No doubt I was a rather exotic sight. I had little time to think about this and realized with a jolt that the cart had stopped in front of what appeared to be an execution block. I then knew that my head would soon rest on it. As we filed off the cart a young soldier read off our names. When I stepped in front of him, he looked puzzled and checked his list. He asked me what my name was and in a voice that belonged to a Nord, I responded, "Falaja. Falaja Nightwalker."
The man looked surprised as he heard both my name and my voice. He turned to the armored women beside him, who I guessed was his commanding officer. "Captain," he asked in a nervous tone, "what should we do with this one; he's not on the list." The captain responded with a voice that answered his question and sealed my fate. "Forget the list, he goes to the block." "By your orders Captain." he responded, and then turned to me and reassured me that my remains would be returned home. I walked over to the block and watched as the executioner decapitated a young man, dressed in the same garb as the Nord who stood next to me, to the cheers of the crowd that had formed.
I was picked next and as I was picked, I heard what sounded like a loud roar. Prisoners and soldiers alike began to mutter with fear, looking around the town to see what had made that horrible sound. As I walked forward, another roar tore through the air. At this I leaned toward the Captain, for impending death gives one a queer sort of courage, and whispered in her ear, "It appears your brave and loyal soldiers seem to be about to wet themselves." At this she grabbed me by my neck, and pushed my head down onto the block. As I looked at the executioner, I noticed a flash of black appear over the horizon. As it disappeared from my sight, I heard men shout and call for the General.
"Archers! What do you see?!" cried the captain. At this moment the executioner, deadest on his gruesome work, lifted his heavy axe and prepared to separate my head from my body. And he almost would have, if a dragon hadn't plummeted from the sky at that moment and landed on the tower behind him. As its black, scaled body landed, it crushed stones beneath its feet and sent a jagged fragment into the executioner's neck. As he choked and spit out his own blood, collapsing to the ground, I knew that my situation had gotten worse.
I stood up and watched as the great beast let loose a mighty roar, causing a great storm to open up in the sky above him. For a moment, I stood there, terrified of this beast's power. I then heard a shout and turned to see the Nord that rode in my cart beckoning to me and telling me to run. I have never run faster than I did when I ran from that dragon. As I entered the keep, the door was bolted and secured as the Nord asked the man in the bearskin cloak (who now no longer had a gag) what was going on. He inquired if the legends could be true, and the man responded in a deep, commanding voice, "Legends don't burn down villages"
As he said this, I looked around, noticing that there were stairs that led to a higher up level. The Nord then turned to me, and told me to run and see if there was a way out upstairs. As I ascended the steps, the rope around my wrists chafing me with each step, I met a young man on the stairs who said that there was no way out. Suddenly, the wall next to him exploded, trapping him underneath some of the rubble. The Nord then cried a warning as the serpentine head of the dragon snaked in. It looked down upon the man, who was trying to move the rubble off of his legs. It's great, black maw opened, and a torrential fire poured out, incinerating the man, and left nothing but a burned and decaying corpse. As it pulled its head out and flew off the Nord cried out, "See that inn on the other side? Jump through the roof and keep going!"
My feet left the stone as I flew towards the roof. As I landed, I crouched and rolled to lessen the impact. The burning timber and thatch of the roof caused me to cough and sputter as the smoke filled my lungs. I stood up, and peered through the smoke, hacking and coughing at the same time. Locating the stairs, I stumbled down and out a hole in the inn's wall. I ran smack into the list reader as he pulled a little boy to safety. "Still alive prisoner? Keep close to me if you want to say that way." he said.
As we ran through the village, I watched in both fascination and horror as the dragon tore through the Imperial soldiers as if they were nothing but rolls of parchment. As the soldier and I ran through towards what appeared to be the barracks, we ran into the Nord, who had found himself an iron axe. "Raloff, you damn traitor, out of my way!" the soldier yelled. "We're escaping Hadvar," Raloff replied, "You're not stopping us this time." "Fine, I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovengarde!" Hadvar shouted back. Both men then told me to follow them. As I had no love for the Empire, I decided to follow the man called Raloff. It was well that I did, for the dragon proceeded to land and snap up Hadvar in its jaws, much like how a mouse is snapped up by a cat. As I ran into the keep with Raloff, I continued to wonder if I would survive this horrible ideal. And as the door closed and the sounds of the keep being destroyed filled my ears, I knew that if I did, I would be the luckiest man alive.